vidence of the existence of bards in all
these places, though the known relics belong almost entirely to Wales and
Ireland, where the institution was more distinctively national. In Wales
they formed an organized society, with hereditary rights and privileges.
They were treated with the utmost respect and were exempt from taxes or
military service. Their special duties were to celebrate the victories of
their people and to sing hymns of praise to God. They thus gave poetic
expression to the religious and national sentiments of the people, and
therefore exercised a very powerful influence. The whole society of bards
was regulated by laws, said to have been first distinctly formulated by
Hywell Dha, and to have been afterwards revised by Gruffydd ap Conan. At
stated intervals great festivals were held, at which the most famous bards
from the various districts met and contended in song, the umpires being
generally the princes and nobles. Even after the conquest of Wales, these
congresses, or _Eisteddfodau_, as they were called (from the Welsh
_eistedd_, to sit), continued to be summoned by royal commission, but from
the reign of Elizabeth the custom has been allowed to fall into abeyance.
They have not been since summoned by royal authority, but were revived
about 1822, and are held regularly at the present time. In modern Welsh, a
bard is a poet whose vocation has been recognized at an Eisteddfod. In
Ireland also the bards were a distinct class with peculiar and hereditary
privileges. They appear to have been divided into three great sections: the
first celebrated victories and sang hymns of praise; the second chanted the
laws of the nation; the third gave poetic genealogies and family histories.
The Irish bards were held in high repute, and frequently were brought over
to Wales to give instruction to the singers of that country.

In consequence, perhaps, of Lucan's having spoken of _carmina bardi_, the
word bard began to be used, early in the 17th century, to designate any
kind of a serious poet, whether lyric or epic, and is so employed by
Shakespeare, Milton and Pope. On the other hand, in Lowland Scots it grew
to be a term of contempt and reproach, as describing a class of frenzied
vagabonds.

See Ed. Jones, _Relics of the Welsh Bards_ (1784); Walker, _Memoirs of the
Irish Bards_ (1786); Owen Jones, _Myvyrian Archaeology of Wales_ (3 vols.,
1801-1807); W. F. Skene, _Four Ancient Books of Wales_ (2 vols., 1868).

BARD